Utrecht, Netherlands
Public transport, airport and rail connections, healthcare access and car ownership — each figure linked to the official publication it came from.
3 of 8 fields sourced from official publications, 5 not yet sourced. Every figure links to the body that published it and the period it describes. Where we don't have something, we say so rather than estimating.
✈️ Getting out
How far this place is from everywhere else — the thing most cost-of-living comparisons leave out.
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol · AMS
Nearest airport
Schiphol (AMS) — direct rail from Utrecht CentraalOfficial statistic
Utrecht has no airport of its own.
Schiphol · August 2026 · city figure
🏥 Healthcare access
Region: Utrecht
Basisverzekering is compulsory — and it is not part of the residence permit
Who the public system covers
Everyone living in the Netherlands must take out Dutch basic health insurance (basisverzekering) under the Zorgverzekeringswet. The obligation arises from residency law, not from your permit — the IND never asks to see a policy, which is why it is so often missed. A US or international plan does not satisfy it.Official statistic
Entrepreneurs and self-employed people are covered by the same obligation as employees.
Business.gov.nl — Healthcare insurance in the Netherlands · August 2026 · national figure
Monthly premium
Not sourced yetThe government sets the insured package; insurers set their own premiums and republish them each November for the following calendar year. There is no single official figure — a constant would give a market price the standing of a decree.
Hospital beds per 1,000
Not sourced yetAggregators carry this figure widely but the CBS StatLine table it derives from was not located with a citable reference year. Not carried over from an aggregator.
GP waiting time
Not sourced yetSee national.
Taking out basisverzekering after you arriveOfficial step
- Register at your municipality (BRP) to obtain a BSN. If you are staying under four months you register with the RNI instead.
- You cannot buy Dutch basic insurance before you have a BSN, so there is a gap between arriving and being covered — bridge cover is worth arranging before you fly.
- Basic insurance must be taken out within four months of municipal registration.
- Cover is backdated to your registration date, so the premium is owed for the gap period regardless of when you enrol.
🚇 Getting around
Operators: U-OV (Qbuzz)
Single journey
Not sourced yetNot captured from the operator.
Monthly pass
Not sourced yetNot captured from the operator.
Service hours
Not sourced yetNot captured from the operator.
🚗 Living without a car
Reported behaviour from official statistics — not a walkability score.
Households with no car
40.4 % of residential addresses with no carComputed
Read from autobezit_gemeente_utrecht.xlsx, sheet 'Tabel 7' (peildatum 1 January 2025), row 8 — the 'Totaal / Totaal' municipality row. Cell K8 = 64,921 addresses with no household car; cell H8 = 168,390 residential addresses in total; cell AB8 = 7,498 addresses CBS could not link to a household in the BRP (the 'Onbekend' column). 40.4% = K8 / (H8 - AB8), i.e. the share among addresses where car ownership is actually known. Against all addresses including the unlinked ones it would be <function alt at 0x7f2eef2fc540>%. CBS counts a company car as one car at the employee's address via the Belastingdienst payroll register, so lease cars are included.
CBS — Autobezit per gebied voor twaalf gemeenten, 2019-2025 (maatwerktabel, team Verkeer, published April 2026) · January 2025 · city figure
Journey-to-work modal split
Not sourced yetCBS runs ODiN (Onderzoek Onderweg in Nederland) annually and it does carry modal split, but the specific StatLine table and reference year were not confirmed. ODiN replaced OViN in 2018 with a methodological break, so the year matters.
Passenger cars registered
9.4 millionOfficial statistic
Up 1.8% on a year earlier and 11.5% on seven years earlier. 87.7% are registered to a private individual, the remainder to companies.
CBS — Hoeveel personenauto's zijn er in Nederland? · January 2026 · national figure
Registered private car owners
7.2 millionOfficial statistic
Against nearly 11.9 million Dutch driving licences. Both are higher than in 2019, with the increase concentrated among people over 75.
CBS — Nieuwsbrief verkeer en mobiliteit, juli 2026 · January 2026 · national figure
Electric or hybrid share
21.5 % of passenger cars that are electric or hybridOfficial statistic
Just over 2 million cars, up 24.8% on January 2025. Three years earlier the share was one in nine; it is now better than one in five. Petrol remains 71.3%.
CBS — Hoeveel personenauto's zijn er in Nederland? · January 2026 · national figure
📍 Neighbourhoods
Neighbourhood-level statistics
Not sourced yetAmsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht all publish wijk- and buurt-level statistics through CBS, but no wijk/buurt figures have been extracted for this city yet.
Where these figures come from. Every number on this page is reproduced from a government body, a public transport operator, an airport authority or a national statistics office, and links back to the exact publication and the period it describes. We don't use cost-of-living aggregators. Where an official source doesn't publish something, the page says so rather than estimating.